DIRTY MESS

Good Monday evening, January 11, 2021. Hoping that you are managing life’s very difficult moments. I am viewing each day with surprise, disappointment, and most of all concern for the future. These are very trying times.

D and I tackled thorough carpet vacuuming and cleaning of the top floor today. It was truly a workout. We will continue with the lower level later on this week.

While I was cleaning the vacuum cleaner out, I removed a large ball of dog hairs, carpet fibers and long threads. They were wedged into every area of the brush. It was truly a tangled and smelly mess.

I asked God what HE might want to tell me. I immediately picked up the mess and understood exactly what HE was saying.

DIRTY MESS!

*TPT Genesis 2:7 Yahweh-God scooped up a lump of soil, sculpted a man, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The man came alive-a living soul.

Yahweh-God is telling man that he will live his life with the consequences of his choice to sin and not repent here: *TPT Genesis 3:19 “You will painfully toil and sweat to produce food to eat, until your body-taken from the ground-returns to the ground. For you are from dust and to dust you will return.”

The dirt ball I was holding held so much truth. I thought about all of the events in my life that defines who I am today. The dirt of life forms many mindsets. Those mindsets form perceptions and reactions that become habits. These either break our backs or strengthen us. I often ask God, “Why must there be dirt of life?”

The New Testament refers to this dirt as “flesh.” Please follow me, as I refer to a few verses in Romans 8.

*TPT Romans 8:5 Those who are motivated by the flesh only pursue what benefits themselves… Romans 8:6 For the mind-set of the flesh is death… and Romans 8:7, 8 In fact, the mind-set focused on the flesh fights God’s plan and refuses to submit to his direction, because it cannot!   For no matter how hard they try, God finds no pleasure with those who are controlled by the flesh.

Keeping these scriptures in mind, realize that in just a few minutes I visited them as God was showing me the true battle that we each fight every day. I still needed to thoroughly clean the carpet cleaner. There were so many animal hairs to clean out of the machine. I needed to reach inside and do a deep cleaning to rid the machine from the dirt. The black water needed to be flushed. It was too filthy and full of pebbles and sand. I found a 1/2 inch of sludge at the very bottom that I had to rinse out a few times before the container was clean.

God again spoke to my spirit. He explained that every day I am faced with real life issues where either I address them in “the flesh” or with the “Spirit of God living in me.” I choose throughout each day to either rage or rejoice; judge or forgive; fail or advance in joy. I choose to either live in the dirt of life or in the freedom I know in Jesus Christ. Life is a wondrous mystery!

Let me now share with you the complete verses that I referred to above. I am italicizing the parts I left out.

*TPT Romans 8:5 Those who are motivated by the flesh only pursue what benefits themselves. But those who live by the impulses of the Holy Spirit are motivated to pursue spiritual realities.

*TPT Romans 8:6 For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set controlled by the Spirit finds life and peace.

And *TPT Romans 8:9 But when the Spirit of Christ empowers your life,  you are not dominated by the flesh but by the Spirit. And if you are not joined to the Spirit of the Anointed One, you are not of him.

I am not saying that I do everything right … always. No, not at all. My life is full of dirt. But God has given me the pleasure of relying on Jesus Christ’s best gift, His Holy Spirit. Reliance on Him sure removes the burden of living life at my whims and carelessness.

DIRTY MESS!

Life is just that, but I have a Divine Helper. I couldn’t do this life without HIM.

TPT Ephesians 2:10 We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!

Hugs always,

Suz

*TPT The Passion Translation